Five Stages
by thinking in blue
Summary: Grieving comes in five stages, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. The last one is the hardest to come by.
1. Denial

1- Denial

Lian was one of those finicky babies who never slept soundly through the night ever. What seemed like every hour on the hour she'd wake them up with her loud, high-pitched wailing. And this night, the one night she decides to sleep soundly, is the night someone decides to visit at one AM.

They ignore the first knock, figuring it was just the wind, there couldn't possibly be anyone at their door this late at night. Then it happens again, and again, and again, and they try to ignore it until it becomes clear whoever is knocking won't go away until someone answers. Jade eventually mumbles something to Roy about answering the door, and Roy begrudgingly gets out from under the sheets, and stumbles over to the door.

He's greeted at the door by the dour looking face of his former teammate and friend Wally West, "It's one in the morning West, what the Hell do you want?"

"We need to talk." He says sternly.

"Can this wait until a decent hour of the day?"

"I wish it could, but it can't. It's important."

He sighs, "This better not be another intervention. You can come in, but make this quick. And don't be too loud, or you'll wake up Lian."

"Too late for that," Jade walks into the front room, baby in her arms. She stares at the semi-familiar face of her visitor. "Why is my sister's boyfriend here at one in the morning?"

"I dunno. All he's told me is that he has someting important to say." Roy replies, shrugging.

She narrows her eyes at Wally, "Well, are you going to tell us this important thing or what?"

"I think its best you sit down."

They exchange curious glances, and slowly lower themselves into the green sofa.

"There's no easy way of saying this," he starts, "Artemis was with The Team at the Earth-Mars communication satellite launch tonight."

"Wait, didn't you and my sister quit the team to go party or something?" Jade asks.

He frowns, "We quit the team to further our education at one of the nation's top universities, not to party."

Roy scoffs, "Same difference, isn't it?"

"So she's back on the team then?" Jade smirks, "Ooh, this is going to be fun."

"What about you West?" Roy asks, "Are you back in the game? I saw you on the news a month or so ago."

"It was a one-time thing, for both of us." He says through gritted teeth.

Jade frowns, "Mmm… too bad. I guess I'll just have to drop by sometime and pay my sister a visit."

"Don't get any ideas." Roy grumbles.

"Will you two quit snarking and listen to me?"

"Ok, Ok. Jeez." Roy says, "Tell us about Artemis and the satellite launch."

"She was supposed to make sure it launched safely-"

"Yeah, that went real well." Jade interrupted. She'd seen on the news that the satellite had blown up midair. The reporters blamed it on a technical malfunction, but her years with the shadows made her suspect there was more to the story.

"Can I finish?" Wally asks, agitated.

"Please." Roy says, "And do it quickly, I'd like to get back to bed soon."

"She was protecting the coast. Black Manta's men stormed the beach, and- and"

"And what?" Roy asks, bored.

"She was stabbed in the ribcage by Kaldur."

Roy winces, "That had to hurt."

"Please, I've probably cut her up worse. So how long until she recovers?"

"She's not going to recover."

"Huh?" Jade asks, confused.

"Roy, err… Jade, I'm sorry, but Artemis is dead."

Right on cue, Lian starts to cry.

"Shh… it's ok." Jade whispers in Lian's ear, and rocks her back and forth.

"Wally," Roy starts, "I know like to be the funny guy, but if this is some kind of joke or prank or whatever-"

"Do you really think I'd joke about this?"

"Were you there to see her killed?" Jade asks.

"No, but-"

"You must have heard wrong then. My sister's tough as nails, she couldn't possibly do something as dumb as die from a stab wound."

"I didn't hear wrong. She's dead."

"Please," She scoffs, "I'm sure I would have one of the Shadows by now if this were true."

"I don't know why the Shadows haven't contacted you, but it's true."

"I've known Kaldur for years." Roy starts, "Yes, he's working for his father, but I highly doubt he'd kill Artemis."

"I thought I knew him too Roy, but he's really turned."

"Well, I know him a lot better than you do. It doesn't matter whose side he's on, he would never, and I mean never, kill anyone, especially someone who used to be his friend. It can't be true. It just can't be."

"I'm sorry, I wish it wasn't. But it is, it really is."

* * *

I don't know if you're familiar with Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's book _On Death and Dying_, but that's where the Five Stages of Grief and the idea for this story came from. The chapters will all be short vignettes like this one, and hopefully (cross your fingers here people) real life won't get in the way and I'll finish before the hiatus ends.

Reviews are appreciated :)


	2. Anger

Ok, I feel like the dialogue in this chapter might get confusing. First off, this entire conversation is being held telepathically, which is why all the dialogue is in_ italics_. Second, only Jaime can hear The Scarab. I wasn't sure if everyone could hear The Scarab because they were linked telepathically, but after mulling it over for a while, I decided they probably wouldn't.

* * *

2 – Anger

Only three people on the team can breathe underwater without assistance, M'gann, Gar, and Jaime, and all three of them were baffled at how there Atlantean friends could stand swimming though mile after mile of empty ocean.

_"Are we there yet?"_

_"No Gar."_ M'gann replies. This is the fifth time he's asked that question.

_"How much longer?"_

_"I don't know Gar."_

_"Why can't I be something cool like a hammerhead shark?"_ He whines. He's currently in the shape of a small green wrasse, and is not at all happy about it.

_"Because Gar, you'd look ferocious as a green hammerhead shark." _She explains as patiently as she can, _"We don't want to scare these people, at least not that badly."_

_"This trip to Atlantis is a waste of time." _The Scarab seethes,_ "We should be on the surface, where the issues are worth our investigation."_

Jaime sighs. Like Gar, his "inner demon" had been complaining the whole trip, _"These issues are worth our investigation. Besides with La'gaan captured, Aquaman needs all the help he can get protecting Atlantis."_

The trio was on their way to Tritonis, a small city-state in the northern Atlantic Ocean that had been reporting some vandalism caused by Purists. Though the Purist movement lost most of its steam after the fall of Ocean-Master, some radicals still liked to cause problems, and the number of problems always seemed to increase when the King was away. Aquaman asked them to investigate the city, see how much damage had been done, remind anyone causing trouble that hate crimes can result in up to a twenty year jail sentence, and only if necessary, use force to break up riots. He didn't really expect problems, Purists usually back down when confronted, but he wanted them to be prepared regardless.

_"Uh… Jaime?" _M'gann asks, _"Are you talking to us, or uh… ?"_

_"Err.. Sorry. Not talking to you guys."_

_"So sis, you think I look scary?" _Gar asks slyly.

She rolls her eyes, _"Gar, I've seen you in Batman footie pajamas, there isn't a form in existence you could take that would scare me."_

Jaime snickers, _"You wore Batman footie pajamas?"_

If possible, Gar's green fish form turns slightly red, _"I_ _was eight years old OK!"_

_"But dude, Batman footie pajamas? Did you have Robin underwear too?" _

_"NO!" _

_"You did, didn't you?"_

_"I did not!" _He shouts, _"M'gann, I thought we agreed you'd never talk about that."_

_"Oops, my bad." _She shrugs, not sounding at all sorry about it, _"Gar was quite the fan boy. I don't know what kind of underwear he wore, but he had a poster on his bedroom wall of, who was it again? Kid Flash right?"_

_"No, it was Aqualad."_

_"Oh yeah, that's right. You had a picture of that traitor on your wall."_ She says disgusted, as though Gar's wall poster had a terrible disease instead of just being a picture of her former teammate.

_"We didn't know he was a traitor then." _Gar whispers.

_"We should have."_

_"Speak of the devil," _Jaime points at a ship headed their way, bearing all the signs of being in Black Manta's fleet.

Aquaman had warned them there was a chance one of Black Manta's ships would pass by. The ocean was big, and his army's activities were at an all-time high. While taking down Black Manta was top priority for The Team, they were strictly ordered not to attack any enemy ships, unless they appeared hostile. The three of them were in no way ready to take on a fleet of Black Manta's soldiers by themselves.

_"We should pursue the enemy ship." _The Scarab orders.

_"Are you crazy? We'd be slaughtered if we tried attacking that!" _Jaime shouts.

_"But it would be the perfect opportunity to seek revenge on your fallen teammate."_

_"Sure, I'd love to get revenge for Artemis, but not by killing myself."_

_"You Martian teammate seems to have the right idea."_

_"Wait what?" _He shifts his gaze towards M'gann. He'd seen some pretty scary stuff in his live, but never seen anything as terrifying as the way M'gann looked right now. Her eyes are glowing green, and she's swimming irately towards the boat, Gar was watching her, looking horrified.

_"M'gann no!"_ Gar shouts, and transforms into a giant squid and captures her with his long tentacles.

_"Let go of me!" _she grunts and struggles to free herself from Gar's grip.

_"No." _He says sternly.

_"Gar, seriously, let me go!"_

_"M'gann, I'm not letting you near that ship."_

_"Ugh.. this is pointless." _She density shifts through Gar's tentacles and furiously swims after the ship. Jaime manages to get in front of her, plasma cannon at the ready.

_"Get out of my way Jaime."_ She demands.

_"No. M'gann, I don't want to have to do this, but if you make any more moves toward that ship, I will stun you." _

Neither move for a minute, until M'gann's eyes stop glowing, and she stands down, _"It's too far away now anyways. Thanks a lot guys, I could've given Kaldur what he deserves if you hadn't slowed me down."_

_ "M'gann, we couldn't have taken that ship down on our own."_ Jaime says.

_"But we damn well should have tried."_

_"At the sake of getting ourselves captured?" _Gar asks, _"Sis, we don't even know if Kaldur was on that ship, he could be halfway across the world right now."_

_"And now we'll never know, since you guys wouldn't let me find out."_

_"Uh… M'gann," _Jaime starts nervously, _"What exactly would you do to Kaldur if you found him?"_

Her eyes glow green again, _"Give him what he deserves. He took La'gaan! He killed Artemis! He killed my best friend! The next time I see him, he's going to pay for what he did. No mercy, holding back, I'm gonna hit him with everything I got." _There was a fury and power in her voice that they'd never heard before. Gar and Jaime knew she wasn't kidding when she said this. If she and Kaldur ever came face to face, she wouldn't hold back, and all hell would break loose.

* * *

Gar actually did have an Aqualad poster in his room. Also, the Purist thing happened in one of the comics, so I'm sorry if I confused you if you've only seen the show.

Reviews anyone?


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